At 09:53 AM 1/3/06, you wrote:
Nice photo of a Clun Forest at
http://www.nationalsheep.org.uk/breeds/clun_forest.htm
And http://www.clun.org.uk/clunsheep.htm
Somehow I always thought the Clun was considered a 'hill breed.' Maybe
Mary Gloster know. In a couple of references from the UK,
http://british.history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=22845 From a history of
Shropshire.
"For the most part the upland sheep were either the Clun Forest or the
Kerry Hill breed...."
Here is part of an article from our NACFA Blue Book:
The Clun Forest sheep has a very ancient lineage, for it is descended from
one of the oldest types of sheep found in England, a distinction it shares
with the other Uplands breeds of the Welsh English border, and also with
the sheep of the Welsh mountains.
The immediate forbearers of the Clun as we know it today were for many
years little more than an obscure local type of sheep. Then, at the turn
of this century, the Clun began to spread to other parts of England,
especially to the eastern lowlands.
I'd be glad to send the entire text file to anyone who is interested in the
history.
Same reference, seems to be about Shropshire, "Sheep were mainly Cluns
crossed with Down rams; much of their winter was spent on beet tops and
kale and the summer on rape and turnips."
" On the arable farms, where it was formerly common to keep a resident
flock of ewes for crossing with a Down ram to produce fat lambs, the ewes
gave way to feeding tegs."
However, whatever the Clun is, upland or down, it is in the US considered
a black faced sheep for scrapie purposes, as are apparently all natural
colored sheep, because they have black faces.
And I hate this as the Clun does NOT have a black face -- it has a brown
face (most often dark brown but can very to lighter milk chocolate
browns. (See our Breed Standards at
http://www.clunforestsheep.org/page4.html ) While you're at the web site,
be sure to read about the Clun Forest fleece. (There, I kept it topic
related!) Mary
Hmmmm, wonder what the (USDA) consider Tunis, Calif. Red, or moorit sheep.
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